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Scion losing traction?

Winding Road

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Automotive industry indexer J.D. Power has published some sales figures for Scion that back up recent news that Toyota?s youth brand may be loosing a bit of traction.

Scion has added numbers to the Toyota sales behemoth for the last five years, but recently those sales have started to flag. The sub-brand saw sales grow from 10,898 units in 2003, to as high as 173,034 in 2006. But last year deliveries of Scion products fell to one-fourth to 130,181 units.

Further reinforcing the notion that the public is losing interest in the Scion brand is the data regarding the time vehicles spend sitting on dealer lots. In 2006 through the early part of 2007, Scion vehicles spent an average of 35 days in a dealer?s hands before being sold. During the same period in 2007 through 2008, that dealer wait had increased by over two-weeks to 50 days.

Could it be that Scion is simply charging too much for their vehicles these days? J.D. Power tells us that the transaction price for each sale has gone up for every model the automaker sells. The average sale price of the tC is up by $479 to $18,758, and the redesigned xB is commanding $1,749 more year- over-year.

Reply to
Dave U.Random
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My guess? The younger generation, maybe even the older folks who might be attracted to the Scion, are looking at alternative brands around the same price that have more hp per pound of vehicle weight.

Toyota has been notorious for being conservatively slow and behind other marques such as Nissan when it comes to performance. This is particularly true in their first-generation anything.

Reply to
witfal

Toyota have always been overpriced, vis a v their competitors cars of the same size and with the same equipment. There are a half dozen cars on the market that one can buy for several thousands less. Like all small cars, over time buyers want more power and more room and they become more powerful and roomer and the prices goes up. ;)

Reply to
Mike hunt

But you only have to buy ONE every 10-17 years, and not rebuild it every

125,000 miles...
Reply to
Hachiroku

Younger drivers now tend to like Mazda 3 and the new Ford Focus w/ Sync. These are very frugal and conservative demographic, except when granny is paying the monthly bills. A lot of retired folks like the xB however.

As far as losing traction, maybe Toyota should add dynamic traction control to Scions? ;) ;) ;)

Reply to
johngdole

What sort of car do you have to rebuild after only 125k miles? Practically any modern car can go 200k-300k miles with reasonable care. I have never actually worn a car out based on mileage. Usually after 4 or 5 years and 150k miles I am just tired of them. Sometimes I get tired of them sooner, but never because they are worn out. From my experience with Toyotas, they are no better (or worse) than typical at surviving the elements. 10-17 years in the sun, rain, wind, ice, snow, etc, takes it toll on them just like most other cars. If anything, some Toyotas seem to have a bigger problem with rust than typical (for instance some Tacomas). Also, Toyota paint doesn't seem to hold up all that well either, but then I can only look at "old" Toyotas to make that statement (like the two older ones in my parking lot).

Ed

Reply to
C. E. White

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